In planning for new Flats group, industrial reps feel minimized

Plans are under way to re-create an advocacy group for Cleveland's Flats, but a spokesman for maritime and industrial interests in the district says the planners aren't paying enough attention to the concerns of companies in those sectors.
At a meeting of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority last Wednesday, Jan. 25, Jim Cox, executive director of the Flats Industry Association, complained that his group and its 40 member companies — including Cargill Deicing Technology's Cleveland salt mine, LaFarge North America's cement operations and Ontario Stone Co. — have not been included on the advisory board that is creating a new Flats advocacy group called Flats Forward Inc.
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal, the biggest employer in the Flats, has been involved directly in those discussions.
Mr. Cox said he has been invited to attend presentations about the new organization, but has not had input in the decision-making process.
At the meeting, Joe Marinucci, president of Downtown Cleveland Alliance, made a presentation about Flats Forward. The Port Authority is taking on a growing role on the Cuyahoga River, and Mr. Marinucci is asking that the Port Authority house whatever staff Flats Forward might have eventually. The presentation to the Port Authority board was informational only, and the board took no action on the presentation.
Mr. Cox explained briefly to the Port Authority board, and more extensively in a subsequent interview with Crain's, that his members are particularly troubled that their concerns about safety along the planned Towpath Trail are not being heeded.
“Nobody's relating to industry,” he said, noting that industrial property owners in the Flats pay property taxes while most residential property there is subject to tax abatement. “Everybody's got security issues. We're seen as obstructionists, but we're not.”
The Towpath Trail is a planned hiking and bicycling path that is mapped to extend to Wendy Park on Whiskey Island. Mr. Cox said the path, as now planned, would use the Willow Street Bridge, which connects the Cargill salt mine and Ontario Stone property to highways beyond the Flats. Mr. Cox said his members are concerned that adding hikers and bikers will create serious safety hazards and security problems.

Forget the past

Councilman Joe Cimperman, who has been driving the creation of Flats Forward, dismisses Mr. Cox's assertions that industrial interests aren't sufficiently represented, noting that Mr. Cox had attended some of the earlier organizational meetings.
“Maybe Mr. Cox is wondering whether or not he is welcome to participate in the organization and the answer is a hearty yes,” Mr. Cimperman said. “But unlike the days of old, we are not going to be pitting people against each other, because we don't profit from conflict. We will be asking (representatives from) industry, maritime, residential, recreational, commercial and entertainment” to participate on Flats Forward's board of directors, he said.
An organization chart Mr. Marinucci presented to the Port Authority board showed a 25-person board with nine seats to be occupied by industrial and maritime interests.
Flats Forward has been in the planning stages for about a year, since an earlier organization, the Flats Oxbow Association, was in its death throes.
Cleveland has a long history of well-organized neighborhood advocacy and development groups. The Flats Oxbow group lost the city's confidence and financial support several years ago and had its own internal problems.
The Flats Oxbow group was formed in the late 1970s when the Flats became dominated by the bars and restaurants that made the area a lively entertainment district. Flats Industry Association was formed in 1988 to provide the traditional heavy industries their own voice. Eventually, Flats Oxbow embraced the area's heavy industries.

"A lost city'

However, in the last decade, a residential population has taken hold in the Flats, creating a constituency that never felt it was represented adequately in Flats Oxbow. At the same time, the industrial base in the Flats has declined, and some of those remaining feel threatened by the way the area is changing.
“We're a lost city down here,” said James Plotz, president of Wm. Plotz Machine and Forge Co., which has been in the Flats for 24 years.
Mr. Plotz said he, too, feels in the dark about plans for the new Flats organization. “It's all behind-the-scenes stuff, and you can't get a straight answer,” he said.